Rutgers coach Kyle Flood: Some SEC teams 'wouldn't play us'

Rutgers coach Kyle Flood says he tried to line up another SEC opponent after the Scarlet Knights' series with Arkansas ends this year and found no takers. (Associated Press)

Kyle Flood's Rutgers Scarlet Knights played a role in creating the train wreck that was Arkansas' 2012 season, beating the Razorbacks 35-26 in Fayetteville en route to a 9-4 record.

Flood said this week, however, that he's looked to schedule games against other SEC teams and hasn't found any takers.

Arkansas, led by new coach Bret Bielema, will play the Scarlet Knights at Rutgers Stadium in Piscataway, N.J. on Sept. 21. But in a teleconference announcing a two-game series with Washington State that will begin on Aug. 29, 2014, Flood essentially called out the rest of the SEC, saying he'd looked to line up another SEC matchup for 2014-15 but couldn't find a team willing to schedule a home-and-home with his program, which will leave the Big East and join the Big Ten in 2014.

"When you have a program that is competitive the way we are and has achieved on the level that we have, it's not always easy to get games and find teams that are willing to play you in a home-and-home setting. To be very honest with you, there were other SEC teams that wouldn't play us."

"I know they like to come up here and recruit and we certainly would love the opportunity to play them on the field. I think our players saw last year when we played Arkansas and the rest of our schedule that we can compete with anybody in the country. We are not going to limit ourselves in terms of who is out there but I can't say that everybody else always feels the same way."

"There were a couple teams that were available that weren't willing to play us. I'm not going to name names. We were looking for a game that we thought would be an exciting game for our players and for our fans and an exciting game for our fans. Really the only stipulation I have is that I want it to be a home-and-home."